[Cite as State v. Kolvek,
2023-Ohio-4402.]
STATE OF OHIO ) IN THE COURT OF APPEALS
)ss: NINTH JUDICIAL DISTRICT
COUNTY OF SUMMIT )
STATE OF OHIO C.A. Nos. 30674
30675
Appellee 30676
v.
ROBERT KOLVEK APPEAL FROM JUDGMENT
ENTERED IN THE
Appellant COURT OF COMMON PLEAS
COUNTY OF SUMMIT, OHIO
CASE Nos. CR 10 03 0633(A)
CR 10 06 1617
CR 10 10 2988(A)
DECISION AND JOURNAL ENTRY
Dated: December 6, 2023
CARR, Judge.
{¶1} Appellant, Robert Kolvek, appeals, pro se, the judgment of the Summit County
Court of Common Pleas. This Court affirms in part, reverses in part, and remands for further
proceedings.
I.
{¶2} In 2010, the Summit County Grand Jury returned three separate indictments against
Kolvek charging him with a litany of offenses. Kolvek ultimately reached a plea agreement with
the State where a number of the charges were dismissed. In Case No. 2010-03-0633(A), Kolvek
pleaded guilty to one count of illegal manufacture of drugs along with an attendant criminal
forfeiture specification. In Case No. 2010-06-1617, Kolvek pleaded guilty to one count of
aggravated possession of drugs with an attendant criminal forfeiture specification. In Case No.
2
2010-10-2988(A), Kolvek pleaded guilty to one count of illegal manufacture of drugs. The trial
court imposed an aggregate prison sentence of three years and six months in the three cases.
{¶3} After a hearing on August 6, 2013, the trial court granted Kolvek’s motion for early
release and placed him on a 24-month period of community control that extended through August
6, 2015.
{¶4} Thereafter, on May 5, 2015, Kolvek appeared before the trial court on a charge of
violating the terms and conditions of his community control. Kolvek entered a plea of not guilty
to the community control violation. Around that time, the Summit County Grand Jury returned an
indictment charging him with several drug-related offenses in Case No. 2015-04-1206(B). Shortly
thereafter, the grand jury returned a separate indictment charging Kolvek with illegal assembly or
possession of chemicals for the manufacture of drugs in Case No. 2015-05-1474(A). The newly
indicted charges were consolidated for trial and a jury found Kolvek guilty of the offenses. The
trial court imposed a total of 12 years imprisonment.
{¶5} In light of the jury verdicts in Case No. 2015-04-1206(B) and Case No. 2015-05-
1474(A), the trial court found that Kolvek violated the terms and conditions of community control
in his three prior cases. After a hearing on January 26, 2016, the trial court reimposed a three-year
term of incarceration in Case No. 2010-03-0633(A). In Case No. 2010-06-1617, the trial court
imposed a nine-month term of incarceration. In regard to Case No. 2010-10-2988(A), the trial
court imposed a three-year term of incarceration. The trial court further ordered that the prison
terms in Case No. 2010-03-0633(A), Case No. 2010-06-1617, and Case No. 2010-10-2988(A)
were to be served consecutively to each other, as well consecutively to the prison terms imposed
in Kolvek’s two more recent cases. The sentencing entries pertaining to the community control
violations were issued on January 29, 2016.
3
{¶6} Kolvek appealed and raised a number of challenges to his convictions in Case No.
2015-04-1206(B) and Case No. 2015-05-1474(A), as well as the sentences imposed for the
community control violations in Case No. 2010-03-0633(A), Case No. 2010-06-1617, and Case
No. 2010-10-2988(A). State v. Kolvek, 9th Dist. Summit Nos. 28141, 28142, 28143, 28144,
28145, 2017-Ohio-9137. This Court overruled Kolvek’s assignments of error and affirmed the
trial court’s judgments. Id. at ¶ 23.
{¶7} In December 2020, Kolvek filed two motions challenging the sentences imposed
after he violated community control. Kolvek filed a motion to vacate void sentences in Case No.
2010-03-0633(A), Case No. 2010-06-1617, and Case No. 2010-10-2988(A). In support of his
motion, Kolvek argued that the trial court lacked jurisdiction to reimpose his sentences for
violating community control because he had already completed the 24-month community control
period by the time he was sentenced on January 29, 2016. Kolvek also filed a motion to vacate
court costs in Case No. 2010-06-1617 and Case No. 2010-10-2988(A), arguing that the trial court
mistakenly ordered the payment of court costs in its January 29, 2016 sentencing entries.
{¶8} In denying the requested relief, the trial court found that Kolvek’s motion to vacate
his sentence constituted an untimely petition for post-conviction relief. The trial court also found
that Kolvek’s motion pertaining to court costs lacked merit.
{¶9} On appeal, Kolvek raises five assignments of error.
II.
ASSIGNMENT OF ERROR I
THE TRIAL COURT ERRED AS A MATTER OF LAW WHEN IT
RECLASSIFIED APPELLANT’S MOTION TO VACATE A VOID SENTENCE
AS AN UNTIMELY PETITION FOR POST CONVICTION RELIEF BECAUSE
APPELLANT’S MOTION DID NOT ALLEGE A DENIAL OF A
CONSTITUTIONAL RIGHT AS REQUIRED BY [R.C.] 2953.21.
4
{¶10} In his first assignment of error, Kolvek argues that the trial court erred in construing
his motion to vacate his sentence as a petition for post-conviction relief because he did not allege
the denial of a constitutional right. This Court agrees.
{¶11} Kolvek contends that he was denied a substantive ruling on his motion to vacate
when the trial court erroneously construed the motion as an untimely petition for post-conviction
relief. The Ohio Supreme Court has held that a motion, despite its caption, may be construed as a
petition for post-conviction relief under R.C. 2953.21(A)(1) when the motion: (1) is filed
subsequent to a direct appeal; (2) claims a denial of constitutional rights; (3) seeks to render the
judgment void; and (4) asks for a vacation of the judgment and sentence. State v. Reynolds, 79
Ohio St.3d 158, 160 (1997). A careful review of Kolvek’s motion reveals that he argued that the
trial court was without jurisdiction to impose prison sentences for the community control violation
in January 2016 because the 24-month period of community control had already expired by that
time. Notably, while Kolvek challenged whether the trial court had authority to impose sentence,
he did not raise an argument based on a constitutional right. Accordingly, the trial court erred in
construing Kolvek’s motion as an untimely petition for post-conviction relief. It follows that this
matter must be remanded for the trial court to address the merits of Kolvek’s motion in the first
instance. See Williams v. Kisling, Nestico, & Redick, LLC, 9th Dist. Summit Nos. 29630, 29636,
2022-Ohio-1044, ¶ 37 (“This Court functions as a court of review and we exceed the scope of our
authority when we analyze issues in the first instance that have not first been addressed by the trial
court”).
{¶12} This Court is aware that, near the end of the trial court’s journal entry, the court
speculated that it would likely deny Kolvek’s motion if it considered it on the merits due to the
timing of when Kolvek was charged with violating community control. Undertaking appellate
5
review based on this speculative statement would be inconsistent with the trial court’s principal
determination that it lacked jurisdiction to consider Kolvek’s motion because the motion
constituted an untimely petition for post-conviction relief. Moreover, the trial court’s observation
did not account for several of the arguments that Kolvek made in support of his motion to vacate,
including an argument pertaining to the calculation of time served under incarceration. Under
these circumstances, we are compelled to sustain Kolvek’s first assignment of error.
{¶13} Kolvek’s first assignment of error is sustained.
ASSIGNMENT OF ERROR II
BECAUSE APPELLANT’S SENTENCE WAS COMPLETELY SERVED, THE
TRIAL COURT ABUSED ITS DISCRETION BY IMPOSING A SENTENCE ON
THE APPELLANT WHEN THE COURT LACKED THE REQUIRED SUBJECT
MATTER JURISIDICTION.
ASSIGNMENT OF ERROR III
WHERE THE TRIAL COURT LACKS JURISDICTION TO IMPOSE AN
INCREASED SENTENCE ON APPELLANT FOR A VIOLATION OF
JUDICIAL RELEASE (COMMUNITY CONTROL), ARE THE NEW JOURNAL
ENTRIES FOR THE INCREASED SENTENCES VOID AB INITIO[.]
ASSIGNMENT OF ERROR IV
RATHER THAN REIMPOSING THE SUSPENDED SENTENCE PER
JUDICIAL RELEASE R.C. 2929.20(K), THE TRIAL COURT ABUSED ITS
DISCRETION WHEN IT INCREASED THE PUNISHMENT OF A VALID
SENTENCE[.]
{¶14} Kolvek raises three additional assignments of error pertaining to the trial court’s
ruling on his motion to vacate his sentence. In light of this Court’s resolution of Kolvek’s first
assignment of error, this Court declines to address his second, third, and fourth assignments of
error as they have been rendered moot. See App.R. 12(A)(1)(c).
ASSIGNMENT OF ERROR V
THE TRIAL COURT ABUSED ITS[] DISCRETION BY NOT ISSUING NUNC
PRO TUNC ENTRIES TO THE JANUARY 26, 2016 JOURNAL ENTRIES FOR
6
CASE NOS. 2010-06-1617 AND 2010-10-2988(A) THAT WOULD VACATE
THE COURT COSTS IN THOSE ENTRIES BECAUSE THE TRIAL COURT
DID NOT IMPOSE COURT COSTS DURING THE SENTENCING
HEARING[.]
{¶15} In his fifth assignment of error, Kolvek argues that the trial court erred in denying
his motion to vacate court costs. This Court disagrees.
{¶16} In Kolvek’s motion to vacate court costs, which was filed in 2020, Kolvek asked
the trial court to issue nunc pro tunc orders in relation to the 2016 sentencing entries that were
issued in Case No. 2010-06-1617 and Case No. 2010-10-2988. Kolvek argued that the imposition
of court costs in the 2016 sentencing entries was a clerical error given the court costs had been
waived in the original sentencing entries issued in 2011. The trial court denied Kolvek’s motion
on the basis that he had failed to demonstrate that the trial court erred in imposing courts costs in
2016.
{¶17} Kolvek’s argument pertaining to court costs is barred by the doctrine of res judicata
because he could have raised the issue in a prior appeal. See Kolvek, 2017-Ohio-9137. This Court
has held that when an appellant could have raised an argument pertaining to court costs in a prior
appeal, a subsequent claim that the trial court erred in imposing court cost is not “exempt from the
preclusive effect of res judicata.” State v. Occhipinti, 9th Dist. Lorain No. 15CA010787, 2016-
Ohio-1286, ¶ 5-6. Accordingly, Kolvek is barred from challenging the trial court’s order of court
costs at this time.
{¶18} Kolvek’s fifth assignment of error is overruled.
III.
{¶19} Kolvek’s first assignment of error is sustained. Kolvek’s fifth assignment of error
is overruled. This Court declines to address Kolvek’s second, third, and fourth assignments of
error as they have been rendered moot. The judgment of the Summit County Court of Common
7
Pleas is affirmed in part and reversed in part and the cause is remanded for further proceedings
consistent with this decision.
Judgment affirmed in part,
reversed in part,
and cause remanded.
There were reasonable grounds for this appeal.
We order that a special mandate issue out of this Court, directing the Court of Common
Pleas, County of Summit, State of Ohio, to carry this judgment into execution. A certified copy
of this journal entry shall constitute the mandate, pursuant to App.R. 27.
Immediately upon the filing hereof, this document shall constitute the journal entry of
judgment, and it shall be file stamped by the Clerk of the Court of Appeals at which time the period
for review shall begin to run. App.R. 22(C). The Clerk of the Court of Appeals is instructed to
mail a notice of entry of this judgment to the parties and to make a notation of the mailing in the
docket, pursuant to App.R. 30.
Costs taxed equally to both parties.
DONNA J. CARR
FOR THE COURT
HENSAL, P. J.
FLAGG LANZINGER, J.
CONCUR.
8
APPEARANCES:
ROBERT KOLVEK, pro se, Appellant.
SHERRI BEVAN WALSH, Prosecuting Attorney, and HEAVEN R. DIMARTINO, Assistant
Prosecuting Attorney, for Appellee.
